


catch

by DimCandleLight



Series: Forever and More [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Getting Together, Housemates, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Walking In On Someone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:22:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26494816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DimCandleLight/pseuds/DimCandleLight
Summary: It jump-starts with two people getting caught. Everything only takes its supposed place from that point.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno, Huang Ren Jun/Na Jaemin, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Series: Forever and More [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926232
Kudos: 65





	catch

Donghyuck freezes midway into the bedroom. 

Jeno gasps behind him. 

Upon the distraction, Renjun looks up. He blinks at the intruders while his hands make an emergency halt, the fabric of Jaemin's shirt messily bunched under the stiff grip of his fingers.

Jaemin, who is currently the only person unaware of their situation, lets out a deep-breathy moan. "Injun—" he writhes under Renjun with his long limbs splayed on the bed, muscles all tense and both eyes shut close.

A faint wheeze is choked out of Donghyuck's throat as he takes in the full sight of their bodies.

When Renjun's weight on him doesn't shift at all for far too long, Jaemin's eyelids flutter open, droplets of tears sticking to his lashes. He blinks a few times before taking in how Renjun's eyes are fixed on the door. Turning his head, he sees their housemates.

The realisation snaps into place for Jaemin first. He yanks down his shirt and sits up, shaking Renjun in his lap back to reality. With how close their faces are right now, he can count Renjun's pores or kiss the bridge of his nose if he wants, but he attends to covering their lower halves first.

Deeming that his blanket has done its job, Renjun heaves in a deep breath. 

"Hyuck, Jeno," he calls out. "come in." 

Their housemates flinch but otherwise make no other movement. They look like they would rather sprint away, but their feet, unfortunately, remain rooted outside the door. Neither Renjun nor Jaemin laughs about their facial expressions. Not in these circumstances. 

"Let's talk," Jaemin says. 

Renjun doesn't turn to look at him, but he reaches for one of his hands, hidden underneath the blanket. The effect is almost the same. Jaemin smiles. Knowing that he's not the only one who is nervous about this is reassuring and comforting. 

Jeno nods hesitantly and nudges Donghyuck inside. 

They shuffle over to Jaemin's bed, made and tidy opposite to the messy, untucked corners of the crumpled sheet on Renjun's occupied bed. The way they sit, perched on the edge of Jaemin's bed with their feet touching the floor, everything about this whole situation is driving Renjun insane. They have never been this on edge around each other, not even on the day their final results are out on the frequently crashing university portal.

"You want to talk, so _talk_ ," Donghyuck says, arms crossed over his chest. He's not looking at any of them, choosing to stare instead at a telltale watermark ring on the floor where Renjun left his glass bottle filled with cold water this morning.

Renjun takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry you had to see... that." He stops to gauge Jeno and Donghyuck's expression— their faces are blank, devoid of emotion. 

Donghyuck’s fingers are twitching in his lap. When he notices that Renjun is frowning at them, he hides his hands behind his back.

Renjun averts his eyes away. "We didn't mean to tell you guys like this."

Jeno sighs. "What are you guys?" He throws them a fleeting once-over, eyes sweeping over the blanket. Two facts to remember about a piece of cloth that has been thrown into the washing machine over more than five years is this; the colours wash out, and opaque turns to _translucent_. _Outlines._ are a thing.

"Are you two boyfriends? Or, perhaps, friends with benefits?" 

Jaemin blinks. _Huh_. He’s expecting something more along the lines of ' _how are you going to tell us then?'_ but not a direct question about their relationship status. 

After a glance at Jaemin, Renjun draws the others' attention back to him with a cough. "We're..." he trails off. 

Right. _What_ are they?

How does one define a relationship where you probably like each other _and_ have feelings for other people at the same time? How does one label people who get intimate whenever they feel like it but only with each other, and at the same time hoping to be like this with other particular people too? How do they name this complex arrangement towards two certain other people who they might or might not like at the same time?

Renjun swallows. "Uh—"

—"we're boyfriends," Jaemin answers on behalf of them both.

Renjun whips his head towards him. "We _are_?"

"Are we _not_?" 

"In some sort of way, we are...?"

"...There’s a _but_ there, no?"

"I thought— _maybe_ we’re, but I thought we're not yet official because— because we're _waiting_?"

Jeno and Donghyuck watch their interactions without blinking, turning their heads from right to left, from the left to the right, and drink in every minuscule of tics and each word coming out of their mouths. 

Renjun shakes his head. "No, this won’t do."

"What are you going to do?" 

Gesturing at their housemates, Renjun turns to give them what is supposed to be a reassuring grin. Jeno has never seen that many teeth out for display when he smiles before. It’s lowkey creeping him out.

"We're waiting," Renjun's smile stretches his lips more and more with every word, "for the right time to tell you guys that we like you."

If this is a badly acted out play based on those sitcoms which Renjun likes to watch, Jeno expects for at least one from the four of them to stand up, clap and laugh hysterically. None of them moves. An awkward silence crowds into the bedroom.

Donghyuck is the first one to shred the silence and send it to hell and back. "Are you messing with us?" he asks.

The broad smile dissipates. "Why would we do that?" Renjun asks him back.

Shaking his head, Donghyuck stands up. "I don't know. I'm not going to stay and find out why," he says before walking out of the room. 

Taken aback, Renjun calls after him. He doesn't look back. Long after the front door is closed with a resolute bang, Renjun turns towards Jaemin and pulls him into a tight embrace. 

Resting his chin on the juncture of Renjun's neck and shoulder, Jaemin closes his eyes. They have talked about this before, many times on different occasions, about scary confessions and scarier reactions. None of those talks prepares them enough for a rejection.

"It's okay," he whispers into Renjun's ear. "I've got you, love."

A small confused noise bursts their bubble. Jaemin opens his eyes at the same moment as Renjun pulling away from him.

Jeno is staring at them, his eyes wide. "You both love each other, _and_ also like— like us?"

Jaemin nods. Thirsty from all the talking, he bends down to pick the glass bottle from the floor.

Thinking hard, Renjun scrunches his nose. "I don't know yet about _love_ , but yes to the other part," he says.

The reaction is almost automatic. Sending him a pout, Jaemin lifts their linked hands above the security of the blanket and waves them in the air. "This isn't enough to convince you, my love?" He lifts the bottle in his hand to drink but keeps watching Renjun's face.

Dragging out the syllables of his laughter, Renjun pulls his hand away, careful not to jostle Jaemin's too much lest he spills water on his bed. He averts his eyes towards the floor. "Okay, fine.” He rubs his nape sheepishly. “Maybe a little bit." 

Watching this unfolds, Jeno smiles when Jaemin meets his eyes over the bottle rim. 

"Anyway," Renjun clears his throat, back to serious business, "you're okay with— with all these?"

Pulling his knees up to rest his chin on, Jeno purses his lips. "Yeah, I like you too, all three of you."

Water, after coming past Jaemin's lips, goes down the wrong pipe. He sputters. His face turns the same shade as his red shirt.

Without a second thought, Renjun slaps his back. 

Jaemin groans. He's still hacking his lungs out but manages to grab Renjun's hand before it could come down twice on his back. "Injun-ah, you could've killed me—" a cough— "with your _power_."

Whispering apologies, Renjun takes away his bottle and puts it somewhere safe. He wraps his fingers around Jaemin's hand and rubs circles on the back of it with his thumb.

"Apology accepted." Jaemin clears his throat. Inhale. Exhale. He pats his chest. "I'm fine now. Just a tad bit surprised."

Looking over at Jeno, he grins. "Say, you like us back?"

In an instant, bright pink spread across Jeno's cheeks. "You don't have to look so smug, repeating what I said," he whines.

Smiling, Renjun crosses over the room to sit beside him. "Hey, Jeno." He coaxes him to raise his head with gentle pats. "Sorry about the shameless boyfriend."

Jaemin cries out an indignant _'’hey!'’_

Jeno turns to face Renjun, who in turn beams at him. "It's true, though, right? What you said?"

Rolling his eyes, Jeno leans in. He stops when there is not more than two centimetres between his lips and Renjun's. "Tell me, what do you think?"

With a grin, Renjun tilts his head. "I don't know," he glances down towards Jeno's lips, "but still, I do hope that it's true."

Within their proximity, every time Jeno breathes in, he gets a whiff of Renjun's perfume, a warm essence of summer straight into his heart. "Please kiss me," he breathes out into the small space between their lips.

"Thought you'd never ask," Renjun mutters before closing their distance.

Jeno shuts his eyes tight as their lips meet. Renjun moves against him carefully, every minuscule of his actions are tentative and gentle. It's not Jeno's first kiss, he's had his fair share of kisses— both good and bad— although the fact that this kiss is with Renjun makes it a lot better than what he's ever experienced in his whole life. He's getting dizzy.

Slowly, Renjun pulls away. He's smiling when Jeno opens his eyes, and everything about this feels too real to be true. Too good, everything—

—Jaemin hums loudly. Both of them turn towards him.

"Aren't you guys forgetting something?" He picks at a loose strand sticking from the edge of Renjun's blanket and swirls it with his index finger.

Jeno giggles. "Come here, Jaemin."

The bright smile popping up on Jaemin’s face when he's called for could've rivalled the sun outside. He wraps the blanket around his waist and strides towards his bed, flanking the empty spot on Jeno's right. Without a warning, he steals a brief peck on his lips.

"That's for kissing Renjun first instead of me," he mutters.

Jeno smiles while Renjun childishly sticks his tongue out at Jaemin. This reminds him of their first housemates trip to the beach during the break for their first semester when the four of them are strung out with tension and hyped for saltwater, golden sand and the sun.

_Oh._ Jeno frowns down to his lap.

Renjun rubs his arm as an offering of comfort. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Forcing a smile, Jeno leans his head on Renjun's shoulder. He accepts Jaemin's hand when it reaches out for him and intertwines their fingers. "What about Donghyuck?" he murmurs.

Uninvited, silence crowds into the room again. 

Renjun sighs. "We should respect him, give him space and time."

"Does he—" Jaemin pauses and frowns at Jeno's hand covered in his— "does he hate us?"

Immediately, Jeno shakes his head. "No, he doesn't. I'm positive that he doesn't."

"How are you so sure?"

Jeno grimaces. "Once when he's drunk," his voice falls a few decibels lower so they lean closer to hear him clearly, "Hyuck tells me about his feelings."

Both Renjun and Jaemin hold in their breath.

"That's all I can tell." Jeno sends both of them an apologetic smile. "The rest is for him to explain."

This time, Jaemin matches Renjun's heavy sigh. 

"Fine, we'll wait for Hyuck to come around," Jaemin decides. He meets Renjun's eyes and quirks up the corners of his lips. "While we do that, can we get back to where both of us were at before? You can join if you want, Jeno."

While Jeno blushes down to his neck, Renjun reaches over his shoulders and pinches Jaemin's cheek, forcing his eyes to drag upwards from Renjun's shorts where they stop mid-thigh. 

"Easy there, you're embarrassing our new boyfriend." Renjun bites down his bottom lip to hold back a laugh. 

Jeno flushes a deeper shade of red. There is nowhere and no way to hide his reactions, with how he's pressed between their warm bodies. He clears his throat but doesn't budge an inch from his spot.

With a halfhearted groan of protest, Jaemin pulls Renjun towards him and crashes their lips together. He's the one starting it but they keep giggling through the kiss so their teeth knock a few times. 

Stuck in the middle, Jeno squeezes their hand encouragingly— only to gasp when they throw all caution to the wind in favour of getting down to business. 

As Jaemin pulls Jeno towards him by his sleeve with a silent hum, Renjun starts littering bites down his neck.

 _This is worth getting caught_ , they think.

***

The creaking of Jaemin's old bed frame repeats over and over again above the alternating moans, whines, and gasps coming out louder over everything else that the three of them, unfortunately, miss the series of incessant pings as a bombard of notifications light up Renjun's lock screen.

> **Mark Lee**
> 
> **__** _hyuck is safe with me_
> 
> _he's stealing my bed and snacks_
> 
> _i made him promise to go back tmr at most_
> 
> _...and solve whatever it's between u guys_

***

True to Mark's messages, Donghyuck doesn't return until late at noon on the next day, when Jaemin has just finished cooking lunch.

Renjun is stretching his sore limbs on their ratty couch in the lounge, mouth agape halfway through a yawn as the front door creaks open and Donghyuck steps onto the fluffy welcome mat on his socked feet. He fastens the locks on the door and turns.

His eyes meet Renjun's.

After blinking a few times, it finally hits Renjun that he's not daydreaming. He jumps up from the couch and sprints towards the entrance.

"Hyuckie!" He cradles Donghyuck's face with both of his hands. "Are you alright? Did Mark _hyung_ feed you enough?"

A faint trace of a smile springs onto Donghyuck's gaunt face. "I binged on Super Rings last night before bed," he says. Brags, more like. 

Renjun pouts. "You didn't bring any for me?" He peers at Donghyuck's empty hands and remains disappointed. 

Before he can answer, a lurch of a ball in human form launches itself in their direction. "Hyuck!" 

It's Jeno. His askew glasses and bed hair are two sufficient proofs that he's just woken up from an afternoon nap.

Donghyuck welcomes the forceful hug with one hand over Jeno's shoulder meeting another hand sneaking under his armpit. He pats his back a few times for a good measure. It's almost a worry, how much he has missed his body warmth.

A pitter-patter of footsteps comes from the small kitchen. The scrumptious smell of fried rice greets Donghyuck first before a person holding the tray laden with bowls comes into view. 

Jaemin gasps when he sees him. He rushes to put down the tray onto a small table in front of the couch before gathering all three of his housemates into his arms. For some reasons, Donghyuck lucks in with being the centre of his hug. Jaemin perches his angular chin on top of his head. 

"You're back," voice dropping low, he mumbles into Donghyuck's hair.

Blinking his tears down, Donghyuck doesn't try to fight the upward quirk of his mouth. 

"Yeah," he whispers. "I'm home."

***

After they've filled their stomach for lunch and washed the dishes, it's time for a serious talk. Leaving the pink pair of gloves to hang dry, Jeno makes his way to the lounge and flops onto the floor, the thin woven mat that Renjun got for free from their landlady barely pressing against his back. He sighs. Eating always makes him sleepy, just like how he often loses any stupid game they play to decide the person on the dish duty. The only game he usually loses to, anyway. He's not that bad as a player.

Jaemin pokes Jeno's shoulder with his toe. "Focus, young man. We're starting the meeting."

Reluctantly, Jeno leans up on his elbows to face his three housemates on the couch. Donghyuck smiles at him, warm and familiar. 

"Alright," Renjun starts first, face all serious and businesslike, "let's get onto our agenda. Hyuck?"

Donghyuck nods and takes over smoothly-- Jeno can't help but suspect that he's rehearsed the lines in his head at least twice. 

"Firstly, I would like to apologise for running away yesterday," he says.

Jaemin shakes his head, looking like he's completely disagreeing, but doesn't cut in. It's a rule that they've upheld early on from their second semester when they decided to rent out and not stay in the main campus together; 'Let the speaker say everything they need to first. No interruption.'

"It's a whole lot to take, and I'm scared to process it all at once and get things wrong," Donghyuck goes on. 

From the other end of the couch, Renjun frowns and crosses his arms over his chest, his pyjama shirt rustling.

"I thought about it the whole night." Donghyuck chews on his bottom lip. "I realised that I don't ever want to lose this." 

He casts his eyes down to his lap. "I can't say for sure how I feel about being boyfriends with all of you when Jeno and I just got together last weekend—"

—Jaemin and Renjun almost snap their necks to look at him and Jeno in alternate turns, their eyes nearly bulging out from the sockets. At the very least, Jeno does look a bit sheepish from his spot on the floor.

"But I think I want to give it a go. Can you give me another chance?" Donghyuck finishes with a question and looks up. 

Renjun turns towards him. "Of course! You're the last one, _boyfriend_ ," He's grinning as he reaches across Jaemin's lap to take one of Donghyuck's hands.

"We'll be honoured to," Jaemin says and squeezes Donghyuck's other hand in his hold.

"Hyuckie," Jeno speaks up from the floor. "Can we talk? Just the two of us?"

Donghyuck gives him a once-over before nodding. 

Jaemin and Renjun let his hands go and watch the two of them walking into their bedroom. 

When the door shuts with a click, Jaemin leans back against the couch. "What do you think they're going to talk about without us?" he asks.

Renjun hums and drops on his back, his head falling right into Jaemin's lap. It's almost a habit by now, Jaemin's hand sneaking towards him to play with his soft fluffy hair.

"Maybe Jeno wants to know whether Hyuck is really, really okay with this whole ordeal," he muses.

"Or maybe," Jaemin tugs on two tangled strands of Renjun's hair to separate them, "he's telling Hyuck about how yesterday went down with his absence and what he's missing out on."

Renjun snorts. "Now, now, aren't you getting all high and mighty on behalf of me, Mr Boyfriend?"

Jaemin cracks a grin, mirth twinkling in his eyes. "Think about it, though. They're boyfriends earlier than you know the two of _us_ are," he points out.

“Oh, come on!” Waving his hand in the air, Renjun doesn’t forget to flick Jaemin's ear once. It doesn’t hurt— he knows it doesn’t from the countless assurances in the past— but Jaemin whines and captures his wrist anyway. He shakes his wrist free, but Jaemin curls his stubborn fingers around it tighter.

"Let a guy just— have doubts, sometimes!"

Giggling, Jaemin leans down to press a kiss on a corner of Renjun's pout. "Sorry, you're always too cute when you get mad at me," he says.

Renjun huffs. Pink fringes fall over his eyes, his hair now messy thanks to Jaemin's handiwork. He puffs up his cheeks and shoots him an expectant look. 

With a fond smile, Jaemin leans down to kiss him properly. Showering people with affection and giving away as much love as his body can contain is operose to him. Renjun has long since assured him that he's happy to accept that. He hopes to learn that Jeno and Donghyuck would, too.

**Author's Note:**

> [cc](https://curiouscat.me/shinecity) || [twitter](https://twitter.com/finlovesinjun)


End file.
